Latest California state parks audit finds more mystery money

(Sacramento Bee) Another audit of the California Department of Parks and Recreation found yet more mystery money: $3.9 million in a fund for donations that had no assigned purpose.

The audit by the state Department of Finance, released Friday, found the money in the State Park Contingency Fund, which holds private donations to the park system. According to the rules governing the fund, each donation is supposed to have a purpose assigned so it is spent according to the donor’s wishes. If the donor does not specify a purpose, the department is supposed to assign one.

But the Department of Finance found that 20 percent of the fund balance, totaling $3.9 million, had sat for years with no designated purpose.